Police say the four men charged in three separate murders in Alberta and Saskatchewan, including one in which a head was found in an Edmonton alley, are members of an organized crime organization known as the White Boy Posse.

EDMONTON—Police say the four men charged in three separate murders in Alberta and Saskatchewan, including one in which a head was found in an Edmonton alley, are members of an organized crime organization known as the White Boy Posse.

The head was found by a woman out for a walk on Oct. 25. The decapitated remains of Robert John Roth had been discovered less than a week earlier and 100 kilometres away near the Alberta town of Ranfurly.

“It was significant. It was sensationalized,” Insp. Jerry Scott with the Alberta RCMP's serious crimes branch said Tuesday after the arrests were announced.

Scott said police stepped up their investigation once they realized what they faced. The gang had been on their radar for a few years.

“We were very cognizant of who we were dealing with and the public safety matters.”

Randy James Wayne O'Hagan, 22, of Lloydminster, Alta., and Nikolas Jon Nowytzkyj, 32, of Wainwright, Alta., have been charged with first-degree murder and offering an indignity to a human body.

Ranfurly residents said at the time of the initial discovery that Roth's remains were found in a ditch next to a running pickup truck. The victim was 54 years old and lived in Lloydminster.

O'Hagan, along with Kyle Darren Halbauer, 22, also of Lloydminster, is as well facing charges in the death of another man. Bryan Gower's body was found on a rural road near Kitscoty, Alta., in September.

Those two accused, along with Joshua Petrin, 29, of Edmonton also face charges in the death of Lorry Santos in Saskatoon in September.

Police said at the time that the 34-year-old mother was shot and killed when she answered the door of her home to strangers. Saskatoon police said Tuesday it appears Santos was an innocent victim of cross-border drug dealing and organized crime.

“This was a tragic crime that left a husband without his wife and four children without their mother,” said Saskatoon police Chief Clive Weighill.

He said the accused killers targeted the wrong house. “They were way off. They came from out of the city. They had the wrong address. They had the wrong co-ordinates.”

The woman's children range in age from five months to 16 years. It was one of her older children who called 911 after the shooting.

Santos worked at uranium mining giant Cameco but had been on maternity leave since giving birth to her fourth child in April.

A co-worker said at the time of the shooting that Santos was a “very special person who had a way of touching people.''